Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is a number of matters to speak to there. Everyone in this House has been involved in a number of referendums and we all know what is required to have a referendum. First, there needs to be wording, even if that wording is as simple as "delete the following sentence", so that has to be agreed with regard to all of these referendums. Secondly, there needs to be legislation. While it probably is not needed, it is advisable so that people know what legislation is going to come into force if an amendment is made. We did that for divorce and for marriage equality. I imagine we would also have to publish legislation so that people know what the new law is before they vote on the amendment. An electoral commission also has to be established, and electoral commissions will want a certain amount of time. We have faced complaints from electoral commissions before, telling Government that it was rushing a referendum and that it did not give the electoral commission enough time. We have also had court cases on campaigns and the validity of referendums as a result of that.

When it comes to a referendum on abortion, on the eighth amendment, I have no interest in long-fingering it. This issue has been discussed for a very long time and I think people should have their say. If it is possible to have it done before the summer of next year, I would have no difficulty with that, but I do not want to make a commitment in the House here that that is possible and then suddenly have to come back into the House in March and April and say that it cannot be done for various reasons. The first step is the Oireachtas committee completing its deliberations. The Citizens' Assembly report was only formally published last week and I understand the committee is not going to have its proper hearings until September, so I expect it will be near to the end of the year before it is able to advise us on the potential wording of legislation.

I will explain the parallel process. It is not an attempt to circumvent the Citizens' Assembly or to circumvent what is happening at the Oireachtas committee. Rather, I have asked the Attorney General and the Department of Health to pay attention to what the Citizens' Assembly has recommended and to pay attention to the deliberations that are going to be happening in the Oireachtas committee, so that if and when the Oireachtas committee makes its report, perhaps at the end of November or December, it does not suddenly arrive on the desk of the Attorney General or Minister for Health and have them asking what it is all about. I want them to pay attention to what the Citizens' Assembly has recommended and to what the committee deliberates on so that we are ready to have a referendum in 2018. If it can be done in the first half of 2018, that is fine with me, but I do not want to make that commitment without knowing that is possible, because I do not want to make a commitment that I might not be able to honour.

On the promised referendums, there are many potentially in train. There is also one on divorce, with Deputy Josepha Madigan having a Bill to liberalise our divorce laws. There are potential referendums on blasphemy, on the patent court, which is slightly in abeyance now because we do not know what the UK is going to do but that does not mean we should not go ahead with it, extending the vote on the Presidency to citizens abroad, women in the home, the eighth amendment and the Office of the Ceann Comhairle. There is much in train. I do not yet know myself which should come first and which should not, but my sense is that the greatest public demand and potential impact on people's lives is from the eighth amendment and the votes for the Presidency for citizens overseas, though for that one, even if we have the referendum in 2018, is not going to be in place for the presidential election, for all sorts of reasons. It would apply to the presidential election after that.

What I would be interested in knowing from the House today and perhaps sitting down with the main party leaders in the weeks ahead is to hear their views and perhaps agree some sort of schedule of referendums. I am not totally averse to the idea of several on one day. I see the upsides and downsides. We have opportunities and potentially a referendum day of some sort in the first half of next year.

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